If homeless are no longer in Bristol County hotels where are they?

Monday

Jan 2, 2017 at 9:00 AM

Curt Brown The Standard-Times

Bristol County homeless officials said they have fulfilled Gov. Charlie Baker’s mandate to end the practice of placing homeless families in hotels and motels, according to an email sent to The Standard-Times.

But at the same time as officials herald the success in Bristol County and other counties in the state, some on SouthCoast are wondering where families will be placed if they need an immediate, emergency placement, particularly if the economy sours and homelessness spikes.

Two years ago, there were 169 families placed by the state Department of Housing and Community Development in either the Dartmouth Motor Inn in Dartmouth, the Atlantic Motel in Wareham and other motels in Somerset, Swansea, Attleboro and North Attleboro, the email which was forwarded to The Standard-Times from the SouthCoast Regional Network To End Homelessness in Bristol County said.

The number of families living in motels dropped to 105 in 2015, and one year later, all the families had been removed from the motels, according to the email.

“There are no families living in hotels that were assigned to hotels,” Peter Muise, co-chairman of the SouthCoast Network To End Homelessness in Bristol County, said Wednesday. “We had some very good success in Bristol County.”

Muise made it clear there are still families living in motels, but they are doing so “by choice,” he said.

Nancy Lawson, coordinator of Emergency Solutions for Catholic Social Services, Fall River, said the families have all been placed in apartments. She said case workers have been assigned to the families and will stay with them for the next 12 months as part of an effort to stabilize their situations.

Rev. David Lima, executive minister of the Inter-Church Council of Greater New Bedford, commended the success of homeless officials in Bristol County, but said he wonders where people will go if the economy goes into a downturn and the number of homeless families increases. “I don’t want hotels and motels, but there has to be an alternative, a stop-gap,” he said.

Lima said his comments follow a Boston Globe story about a lawsuit brought by five homeless mothers. The litigation, filed by Greater Boston Legal Services, says the parents and children are legally entitled to immediate accommodations, but are turned away because shelters are full and the state is no longer using motels. As a result, the families are sleeping in emergency rooms and other places not meant for human habitation.

Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford, said that to eliminate motels as an option the state needs to offer homeless families “a sustainable alternative to keep them in permanent housing.

“Unfortunately, the state has not come up with a perfect solution to that. There are families that continue to fall through the cracks,” he said. “The challenge is to find more affordable housing in the regions where they live. We are far from a solution.”

Carl Alves, chairman of the Homeless Service Providers Network in New Bedford, said homeless advocates were able to locate the families already living in motels into apartments with the help of additional rental vouchers. The vouchers must be maintained by the state for families to continue to live independently.

“We’re actually quite proud that people aren’t in hotels. We want to keep people in homes, not warehouse them,” he said.

The state has also ended the use of motels in Hampden, Franklin and Worcester counties, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. As of Tuesday, there were 140 families statewide sheltered in motels and 3,462 families in non-motel shelter for a total of 3,602 in the Emergency Assistance shelter system.

“Since taking office, the Baker-Polito administration has reduced the number of families in motel shelter by 89.5 percent, while achieving reduction, of 21 percent, in the overall Emergency Assistance shelter system caseload,” an EOHED’s email said.

The executive office email added that Massachusetts is the only “right to shelter” state in the land and all families that meet or appear to meet eligibility standards will always receive shelter.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.